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NJ - Bonita Sanders, 2, Atlantic City, 14 Sept 1986

Vital Statistics Date Of Birth: September 17, 1984 Age at Time of Disappearance: 1 year old Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 2'6; 30 pounds Distinguishing Characteristics: Black female. Black hair; brown eyes. Marks, Scars: Sanders has an abdominal hernia scar.
<LI>Clothing: Sanders was last seen wearing a short-sleeved yellow shirt; blue pants; and blue and white sandals.

Circumstances of Disappearance On September 14, 1986, Sanders was strapped in her stroller, sucking a popsicle on her mother's porch on the 900 block of Baltic Avenue in Atlantic City. Inside, her mother, Bonita Sanders , cooked dinner as her other children played in a nearby lot. Minutes later, between 6 and 7 p.m., Bonita Sanders later told police, she looked outside and the stroller was empty. She said she searched, but to no avail. Sanders's father was immediately eliminated as a suspect. At 20, Bonita Sanders allegedly walked out of a hospital and abandoned Sanders when she was born. A month after Sanders' disappearance, she abandoned a baby boy months after pretending to her boyfriend that she'd had an abortion.
In January 1987, she was sentenced to nine months in jail for endangering the welfare of a child; her three children were placed in other homes. At sentencing, a prosecutor said Sanders lied during their investigation into Bonita's disappearance, changed stories, provided false leads and never inquired about the investigation. Sanders' father was seeking custody of her when she disappeared.

Law enforcement officials are searching a section of woods in Pleasantville seeking evidence in the case of an Atlantic City toddler who disappeared 22 years ago.

Bonita Sanders was last seen on Sept. 14, 1986, on the front porch of her mother's house in Atlantic City. She was three days shy of her second birthday.

The girl's father, 44-year-old Abdul Salaam of Atlantic City, says officials from the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office contacted him last week and said there was a break in the case. He says he learned Monday that they were digging in the woods in Pleasantville.

The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to cynsational For This Useful Post:

New Evidence In Case Of Toddler Missing For 22 Years

PLEASANTVILLE, N.J. — It wasn't much as far as slim hopes go, but it was all that relatives of Bonita Sanders had to cling to for more than 22 years.
"I thought maybe she was adopted somewhere, you know, sold on the black market somewhere, and that we may never see her again but at least she'd be all right and happy," said her aunt, Danielle Dabney.
But that hope was dashed earlier this month, family members say, when prosecutors in southern New Jersey told them there is evidence that Bonita was killed and her body might have been buried in a wooded area a few miles from the home where she disappeared on Sept. 14, 1986.
The girl was three days shy of her second birthday and strapped into a stroller on the porch of her home eating an ice pop the last time anyone saw her.
more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,499986,00.html

"All day Monday, local, county and state investigators dug and sifted soil and used a cadaver dog in a large wooded lot just off New Rd., between Brighton and Wellington Av."

and:

"Salaam also said that Bonita's mother -- also named Bonita -- has to come forward. He said that following a meeting at the Prosecutors office last week, she has been 'on the run', "....I just want her to turn yourself in, get it over with and lets find out what happened and lets put it behind us."

According to reports, Sanders has a long record of strange and disturbing behavior regarding her children.

After giving birth to her daughter in 1984, Sanders allegedly attempted to abandon the newborn by leaving the hospital without her.

A month after the toddler went missing, in 1986, Sanders gave birth to a son under an alias name, and then left the newborn in a bus terminal restroom.

Sanders was sentenced to nine months in jail for endangering the welfare of a child, and in 1987 her other three children were placed in foster homes."

At above link is interview with Bonita's father, some family history and history of case.

snipped from end of article:

"But Sanders never seemed interested in finding the girl, Salaam said. She would refused to talk to him about the disappearance. Meanwhile, he kept the story alive, even contacting “America’s Most Wanted.”

“This is your child that’s missing,” he said Wednesday, expressing his thoughts about Sanders. “You have never attempted to find her. You never took part in any event to help me find her.”

The last time he saw her was more than an hour before the Feb. 11 meeting with Prosecutor’s Office investigators. They were both at an awards ceremony for their grandchildren. She looked thin, but good, he said. Just about 110 pounds on her 5-foot, 2-inch frame.

Salaam waits for the day he can ask Sanders what happened.

“I know that she’s going to be charged,” he said. “I know it. I know it in my heart.”

my daughter was 2 before she could walk. she's healthy, normal & fine. born with a slight skeletal syndrome which attributed to her delay. But the pediatrician told us not to concern ourselves until she reached 2 years old. Thinking it's not that unusual in some kids. Certainly nothing we were or weren't doing.